Back in October, I also spoke of the need to work with the international community in pursuing an aggressive course of action against ISIL — something which this House endorsed.

Today I am here to report on the evolution of the situation, to note that the direction and resolve of our allies and partners in dealing with this threat has not changed, and to propose that Canada renew its commitment to the international coalition and its mission.

The good news is this: the territorial spread of ISIL, something occurring at a truly terrifying pace in the spring and summer of last year, has been more or less halted.

Indeed, ISIL has been pushed back somewhat at the margins.

In significant part, this is because of the breadth and intensity of the international opposition that it has provoked, not just in the West, but in the majority of the Muslim world, both Shia and Sunni, and specifically in Arab nations.

Canada is also helping those combating regional terrorist financing networks and we are working in concert with others to stem the flow of foreign fighters to the region.

In fact, among the nations of the world, we have been one of the biggest providers of humanitarian assistance.

I am glad to tell you that in the last six months, we have helped feed 1.7 million people in Iraq, provide shelter and relief supplies to one and a quarter million people and give some education to at least half a million children.

Beyond that, we have also been helping to support more than 200,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq, with food, water, shelter and protection.

There is no either/or here between military action and humanitarian aid.

The situation desperately needs both and Canada has been vigorously providing both.

And so have a wide range of international partners.

And, Mr. Speaker, the upshot is this: there has been no lessening of the global consensus that ISIL must be resisted, and resisted by force.

Again, Mr. Speaker, today, we are tabling a motion seeking the support of the House for the Government’s decision to renew our military mission against ISIL for up to an additional 12 months.

Our objectives remain the same: we intend to continue to degrade the capabilities of ISIL, that is, to degrade its ability to engage in military movements of scale, to operate bases in the open, to expand its presence in the region, and to propagate attacks outside the region.

Specifically, we will extend our air combat mission, that is, our airstrike capability, our air-to-air refuelling capability, our Aurora surveillance mission, and the deployment of aircrew and support personnel.

Again, Mr. Speaker, the government is also seeking the support of this House for its decision to explicitly expand that air combat mission to include Syria.

The government recognizes that ISIL’s power base, indeed the so-called caliphate’s capital, is in Syria.

ISIL’s fighters and much of its heavier equipment are moving freely across the Iraqi border into Syria, in part for better protection against our air strikes.

In our view, ISIL must cease to have any safe haven in Syria.

Let me also be clear that, in expanding our airstrikes into Syria, the government has now decided that we will not seek the express consent of the Syrian government.

Instead, we will work closely with our American and other allies, who have already been carrying out such operations against ISIL over Syria in recent months.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I also note that, in asking the House for the renewal of this mission over the next 12 months, it is the government’s intention for the same period, that members of Canada’s special forces will continue their non-combat mission to advise, assist and increase the capabilities of Iraqi forces combating ISIL.

We share the view of President Obama and others that we must avoid if we can taking on ground combat responsibilities in this region.

We seek to have the Iraqis do this themselves, and our role there is to help them to do that.

And, of course, Mr. Speaker, Canada’s humanitarian work will go on.

We do not need to choose between fighting ISIL and helping its victims.

We will continue to do both.

Canadians did not invent the threat of jihadi terrorism, and we certainly did not invite it.

Nor, as this global threat becomes ever more serious, can we protect our country or our communities by choosing to ignore it.

That is why a strong majority of Canadians have supported our government’s mission against ISIL.

Canadians understand that it is not merely in the wider interests of the international community, but specifically in Canada’s national interest.

Yet the Canadian Armed Forces never waver in defending our country, our families and our values.

We are humbled, and eternally grateful for their service and sacrifice.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, this House will debate the motion put forward by the minister of foreign affairs for a renewed mission against ISIL.

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“I’m about as happy as I can be,” said Raonic, who has improved his showing at this desert venue with successive appearances. “Obviously there was a lot of up and down through that match, and all I could ask of myself was just keep competing and hope to find a way.

“I got fortunate a few times and it worked out. But there is a day of work tomorrow and I have to prepare for that. I need to keep up the momentum.”

Federer booked his place in the semis as he crushed Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-0.

The ATP No. 2 has won eight of nine against Raonic, with the 24-year-old Canadian catching the Swiss with a win at Paris Bercy last November indoors.

“I think I have a good understanding of what I need to do against Roger,” said Raonic. “Obviously that’s the easiest part, understanding it, rather than doing it.

Julian Finney/Getty ImagesRafael Nadal of Spain reacts in his match against Milos Raonic of Canada at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

“I’ve just got to keep calm, keep collected, and just try to figure out solutions and adjustments as they come.”

Raonic lost the opening set against Nadal but turned in an heroic second to level after missing on multiple set points.

In the third, Raonic did not waver, matching Nadal toe-to-toe and breaking for 6-5.

The Spanish third seed saved a break point in that game earlier, but could not handle a Raonic return that dropped dead on the baseline.
A game later, Raonic sent over an ace for a match point and took victory as Nadal sent a return wide.

Raonic ended with 48 winners and 59 unforced errors in his controlled display of power tennis. Nadal finished with just 25 winners.

Raonic has now advanced to the quarter-finals or better at eight of his last 10 Masters 1000 events— a feat matched only by Federer.

Nadal swept up the opening set in quick fashion after 38 minutes thanks to his single break of Raonic’s serve in the third game.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty ImagesMilos Raonic was relatively calm despite defeating Rafael Nadal in three sets for the first time.

But life got more complicated for both players in the second as Raonic began to get stuck into his game and concentrated as much on holding his nerve as in diffusing the shot-making genius of his opponent.

Raonic played even with the Spaniard as he saved break points to hold for 3-2 and again for 5-4. But the Canadian missed a chance to level at a set each as he missed on two set points in the tenth game.

Raonic drove an easy forehand into net on the first and could only watch as Nadal fired an ace on the second as the set went to a tiebreaker.

The tension tightened in the decider, with Nadal failing to convert on three separate match points. Meanwhile Raonic had difficulties with set-point chances before finally converting after 81 minutes when Nadal hit the net with a return.

“When I was playing those match points it didn’t really feel like match points, they were just like another point that I was trying to get through,” said Raonic. “I can only remember one, but I don’t even remember the last two.

“It was going through the paces at that moment of what do I need to do now, not really signifying it as a match point.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Shailene Woodley was just another young actor eking out a successful, if below-the-radar, living on the small screen. Yet after her turn as George Clooney’s disaffected teenage daughter in The Descendants, Woodley jumped from being known only for ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager to a performer on the brink. Just four years later, she’s now a big-screen headliner on par with Clooney himself, and starring in the young adult sci-fi franchise The Divergent Series.

The 23-year-old’s exploiting the YA juggernaut for all it’s worth in its latest chapter, The Divergent Series: Insurgent, which opens this weekend. (Veronica Roth’s third novel in the perhaps awkwardly titled trliogy, The Divergent Series: Allegiant, will be made into two films opening in 2016 and 2017, as is standard triology-adaptation practice these days.)

In Woodley’s latest post-apocalyptic go-around, her character Tris finds herself without parents, but determined to lead a revolt against Erudite despot Jeanine (Kate Winslet). With her boyfriend Four (Theo James) by her side, Tris, an illegal Divergent, is also determined to destroy the faction system based on perceived abilities. Key to that, and the revolution, just might be a box containing a secret message discovered in the rubble of Tris’ parent’s home. So, standard YA material in this post-Hunger Games world.

As comfortable as Woodley seems to be in the role of the heroine, she had to cope, at first, with a few Insurgent alterations. For one thing, Divergent director Neil Burger was replaced by action director Robert Schwentke, who made a name for himself shaping the Bruce Willis spy comedy Red. The director dilemma, though, was resolved after the first few days of filming Insurgent in Atlanta. “[Robert] is a genuinely warm human being,” Woodley says. “He doesn’t have an ego and he’s open to collaboration.”

Returning to the head space of Tris took Woodley a period of adjustment, though. “I had grown in a year, and I thought going back into the [Tris] mind set would be simple but my mind set had changed,” Woodley says. “So I had to go back to where I was a year ago.”

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Franchise newcomer Naomi Watts admires Woodley’s perseverance and her leadership during filming. “I was really impressed with how disciplined all these young actors are. It was grounded in truth and the obvious respect they had for each other.”

It all started with Woodley, who is one of the few child actors to make the transition into adulthood with few dysfunctional bumps along the way. Besides Divergent, Woodley also starred last year opposite Ansel Elgort (he plays her brother in the Divergent series) in the drama The Fault in Our Stars, which scooped up an unexpected $306.5-million worldwide. In the aftermath of the recent fame and fortune, though, Woodley tries to stay grounded.

“I’m kind of an obvious person,” she says. “I like to keep some things in my life sacred. Apart from that, I feel like what you see is kind of who I am — always.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook offered to donate a portion of his liver to Steve Jobs when he was in need of a donor, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli report in their book “Becoming Steve Jobs: The Revolution of a Reckless Upstart Into A Visionary Leader.”

The book doesn’t launch until March 24, but blog Cult of Mac was able to see some snippets early through Amazon’s “Look Inside the Book” feature. Amazon has since blocked out most of the preview. Fast Companyalso saw spotted the excerpt.

One afternoon, Cook left the house feeling so upset that he had his own blood tested. He found out that he, like Steve, had a rare blood type, and guessed that it might be the same. He started doing research, and learned that it is possible to transfer a portion of a living person’s liver to someone in need of a transplant. About 6,000 living-donor transplants are performed every year in the United States, and the rate of success for both donor and recipient is high. The liver is a regenerative organ. The portion transplanted into the recipient will grow to a functional size, and the portion of the liver that the donor gives up will also grow back.

But Jobs refused the offer, the book says. “He cut me off at the legs, almost before the words were out of my mouth,” said Cook. “‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that.”

Here’s the rest of the excerpt, via Fast Company:

“Somebody that’s selfish,” Cook continues, “doesn’t reply like that. I mean, here’s a guy, he’s dying, he’s very close to death because of his liver issue, and here’s someone healthy offering a way out. I said, ‘Steve, I’m perfectly healthy, I’ve been checked out. Here’s the medical report. I can do this and I’m not putting myself at risk, I’ll be fine.’ And he doesn’t think about it. It was not, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ It was not, ‘I’ll think about it.’ It was not, ‘Oh, the condition I’m in . . .’ It was, ‘No, I’m not doing that!’ He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them.”

According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, which was published in 2011, Steve Jobs traveled to Memphis to receive his liver transplant. The operation extended his life by two-and-a-half years, as Memphis-based newspaper Commercial Appeal also reported.

We’re expecting to learn more fascinating details about Jobs’ life when the book launches later this month.

Ah, the freedom of the little brother. While elder siblings can get sacked with pressure and an enhanced sense of responsibility, the second in line is often a wild card, slipping under the radar to forge his or her own path.

Exhibit A: William Pierce Butler, younger brother of Win. Win, 34, has spent the past decade and change leading Montreal rock band Arcade Fire on a charmed orbit to fame and acclaim; Will, 32, has lingered in the background, playing court jester to his big bro’s noble king.

In Arcade Fire’s early shows, when not picking up any number of instruments depending on the song, Will could be found hamming it up – donning a motorcycle helmet on which bandmate Richard Reed Parry would play percussion (or vice versa); climbing curtains, rafters, speakers or whatever scalable fixture was at hand; and darting about the stage in order to increase the general sense of mayhem.

If you bump into the Butlers outside of a concert venue, Win is the tall, serious one, friendly but a tad self-conscious. Will is more laid back, with an easy smile.

So it is fitting that his debut solo album, Policy, out Tuesday, is the most freewheeling thing Arcade Fire or any of its crew have released. Butler is not the first bandmember to go solo – there was violinist Sarah Neufeld’s frenetically experimental Hero Brother, in 2013; and Parry’s neo-classical Music for Heartand Breath, last year – but he is the first to really let loose.

With eight songs clocking in at under 30 minutes, in styles ranging from garage rock to new wave, riff-riding acoustic and electro-tinged funk, with a ’50s ditty and a few ballads thrown in for good measure, Policy is a joyful rebel yell, the free-spirited yelp of rock sideman stepping into the spotlight.

“Both out of necessity and philosophy, I wanted it to be quick and dirty,” Butler says. “It’s not DIY. It was done in a beautiful studio, with a proper engineer, not on a laptop – but I wanted it to be fast. I did it at a studio just so I was paying for it, and I would have pressure.”

His stripped-down studio band, if you can call it that, did include one Arcade Fire member, drummer Jeremy Gara. Otherwise, aside from backup vocals and woodwinds, Butler did everything himself.

“It’s wonderful to have collaborators,” he said, “but it takes a lot out of you to explain an idea or vision. There are some visions you can only achieve with collaborators – like every film ever made; but a lot of visions can be done by yourself. I was experimenting with stuff I could do on my own before roping others into it.

“This is not a one-off. This is the first thing of many things. I hope it will make a lot of sense in the context of whatever else I do.”

Will Butler’s album Policy is out on March 10.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/arts/music/arcade-fires-will-butler-steps-into-spotlight-with-solo-album/feed/0stdBig Day Out 2014 - AucklandIndia’s home minister has no idea how film crew managed to interview unrepentant rapist in prisonhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/indias-home-minister-has-no-idea-how-film-crew-managed-to-interview-unrepentant-rapist-in-prison
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/indias-home-minister-has-no-idea-how-film-crew-managed-to-interview-unrepentant-rapist-in-prison#commentsWed, 04 Mar 2015 15:34:19 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=711845

India’s home minister says he has no idea how a film crew managed to enter high security Tihar Jail and interview a death row convict who blamed the victim for a fatal gang rape in 2012.

“It was noticed the documentary film depicts the comments of the convict which are highly derogatory and are an affront to the dignity of women,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh told lawmakers in parliament on Wednesday.

“How was permission given to interview a rapist? It is shocking. I will get this investigated.”

Late on Tuesday, the home minister directed Delhi police to obtain a court order prohibiting the film’s release in India.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGkB624b8HI&w=640&h=460]

AFP / Getty ImagesIndian police officials escort Mukesh Singh, one of those convicted in the Delhi gangrape case, to an appearance at the High Court in New Delhi on September 24, 2013.

Singh’s remarks came after female opposition MPs left their seats in the Indian parliament, forcing a 15-minute adjournment, to protest the convict’s interview from inside the prison in New Delhi, The Times of India reported.

“What do you want… I am not able to understand? Why don’t you go back to your places and speak,” deputy chairman P.J. Kurien instructed the protesters.

The documentary “India’s Daughter” features Mukesh Singh and fellow convicts who raped and tortured a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012.

Comments released to the media this week showed that in the film, Mukesh blames the victim for the crime and resisting rape. He also says women are more responsible than men for rape.

“You can’t clap with one hand – it takes two hands,” he says in the film, according to a statement by the filmmakers.

“A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy … Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things. About 20 percent of girls are good.”

The home minister blamed documentarian Leslee Udwin for failing to show the complete unedited footage to jail officials, who granted permission to the film crew to enter on the condition the documentary was not to be used for commercial reasons and in the public arena.

Altaf Qadri / AP PhotoBritish filmmaker Leslee Udwin addresses a press conference on her documentary film "India's Daughter," about the Dec. 16, 2012 gang rape in a moving bus, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Mukesh Singh, one of the men convicted of raping and killing a woman in the brutal 2012 gang attack on a New Delhi bus said in a TV documentary that if their victim had not fought back she would not have been killed.

Udwin told the BBC that the jail and home ministry had given her permission to conduct the interview. Udwin interviewed one of the rapists for a BBC Storyville documentary due to be broadcast on 8 March, International Women’s Day.

Udwin told an NDTV studio discussion on Tuesday that the film “tries to show the disease is not the rapists, the disease is in society”.

A BBC spokesperson said: “This harrowing documentary, made with the full support and co-operation of the victim’s parents, provides a revealing insight into a horrific crime that sent shock waves around the world and led to protests across India demanding changes in attitudes towards women.

“The film handles the issue responsibly and we are confident the programme fully complies with our editorial guidelines.

“Assassin Films, the production company that made India’s Daughter, has assured the BBC that it fully complied with the filming permissions granted by Tihar Jail.”

Only one thing could keep the Narbonne High School girls’ basketball team in Los Angeles out of this weekend’s city championship game: the colour of its uniforms.

The Gauchos used a stirring come-from-behind victory over View Park on Saturday to improve their record to 23-5, gain a shot at the city title and earn an almost-certain berth in the coming state tournament.

But Narbonne was forced to forfeit all that because it wore the wrong color uniforms without permission.

The Gauchos, whose school colours are green and gold, wore white uniforms with green piping but pink numbers and letters. Coach Victoria Sanders told The Daily Breeze that her team was taking part in the “Play 4Kay” campaign, to raise awareness for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. Yow, the longtime North Carolina State coach, died of breast cancer in 2009.

On Monday, league officials took away Narbonne’s 57-52 semifinal victory over View Park and kicked the Gauchos out of the postseason for violating Article 1305 of the rule book.

“It had nothing to do with the colour pink as far as the regulation,” John Aguirre, commissioner of the Los Angeles City Section, said Tuesday morning. “What it had to do with was that they did not submit a request for wearing uniforms other than school colours. They just did it. And at the same time, they’re on a probationary status for violation of rules for this past year.”

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In last season’s playoffs, Narbonne reportedly used a player who had received two technical fouls the previous game and should have been ineligible.

An appeal is scheduled to be heard Tuesday. Aguirre said an immediate resolution was required because playoff games in the consolation bracket are scheduled for Wednesday.

There are knotty aftereffects to untangle beyond deciding whether Narbonne or View Park plays in Saturday’s city championship game against Palisades. Narbonne wore the same uniforms in its previous playoff victory, over University, though it was not forced to forfeit that result.

And the Los Angeles City Section, one of 10 sections of the California Interscholastic Federation, could have as many as four teams tabbed for the coming state tournament. If Narbonne simply had forfeited its latest victory, rather than the entire remainder of the postseason, it might still have been selected for the state competition.

Being penalized for improper uniforms is not unprecedented. Aguirre said that three volleyball teams this season have forfeited matches for wearing unapproved uniform colours. None of them had to do with pink, he said.

Officials at Narbonne, in the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment, but the principal, Gerald Kobata, released a statement to The Los Angeles Times on Monday night.

“This is a huge disappointment for the girls basketball team, a team that worked so hard to achieve success on the court and in the classroom,” the principal wrote. “We were unaware that honouring cancer victims with uniforms was against California Interscholastic Federation rules. I feel badly for the students – especially the seniors – their families and the Narbonne community. Though bound by the decision, I want to make sure this never happens again here.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/california-high-school-basketball-team-ejected-from-playoffs-for-pink-on-uniforms-in-support-of-breast-cancer-awareness/feed/0stdjerseyDutch love of bicycles means a shortage of places to park them, so plans include underwater garage and two islandshttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/dutch-love-of-bicycles-means-a-shortage-of-places-to-park-them-so-plans-include-underwater-garage-and-two-islands
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/dutch-love-of-bicycles-means-a-shortage-of-places-to-park-them-so-plans-include-underwater-garage-and-two-islands#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 17:12:33 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=707539

CYCLING has become so popular in Amsterdam that officials have drawn up plans for underwater garages to meet demand.

The Dutch city, renowned as Europe’s cycling capital and home to more than 800,000 bicycles – almost one per head of population – wants to create a 7,000-space bicycle garage beneath its waterfront.

The new parking space, which will be excavated beneath the harbour to the south side of the city’s Central Station, will connect commuters to their bikes from the metro system via underground pedestrian tunnels.

Two floating islands with space for 2,000 bicycles each will also be constructed on the north side of the station in the harbour, which forms Amsterdam’s waterfront.

More than half of Amsterdam’s 810,000 residents use their bicycles daily, but the city currently has just 400,000 designated bicycle parking spaces.

Bicycles are considered the fastest way to navigate the city’s winding 17th century streets. More than 300 miles of cycling lanes have been constructed since the 1970s, when the city took action against rising car traffic after a series of fatal accidents. Bicycle parking is notoriously difficult around major transit hubs, with commuters jostling for space around Amsterdam’s rail stations.

Illegally parked bicycles are frequently removed at a cost of up to euros 70 each. The bulk of the cost is picked up by Dutch taxpayers – only a quarter of owners bother to retrieve their seized bicycles, despite a release fee of just euros 12, as bicycles are so cheap and abundant in the Netherlands. About 73,000 were removed by the authorities in 2013.

Amsterdam announced plans in 2012 to introduce stricter parking laws to prevent people leaving their bicycles for longer than 14 days at popular locations.

The city’s proposed new parking scheme echoes the unusual system in Tokyo, where users place their bicycle in an automated booth which then takes it below ground using a lift mechanism.

According to the London Cycling Campaign, London has two million bicycles for a population of eight million. It is not clear how often they are used.

Fabian Åkesson stood at the front window brushing his teeth and saw police cars descend on girlfriend Sarah Ericsson’s house in Karlskrona, Sweden.

Three officers strode to the front door and quickly realized their mistake when they entered.

Ericcson and Åkesson were not Islamic State extremists and the letters IS reported by a concerned passerby were in fact inflatable balloons in the shape of the number 21, the birthday Ericcson was celebrating.

FacebookSarah Ericsson and boyfriend Fabian Åkesson

“They asked me to take down the balloons to avoid further misunderstanding,” Åkesson told Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten. “We laughed some more about it all and they wished me a nice day, and wished my girlfriend a belated happy birthday.”

“It was a little strange,” Ericcson told The Local from the library at Blekinge Institute of Technology, where she is taking a course in Spatial Planning. The student was in class Monday when police visited.

“Everyone else just thought it looked like the number ’12’ from outside,” she said.

Ericsson, who had hung the balloons and invited friends over for a party, said her 21st birthday was one she will always remember.

“I’m so surprised at all the attention. I will never forget my 21st birthday!”

ISIS plans to release a video today, threatening to murder 150 Christians taken hostage in Syria, if a U.S.-led coalition of military forces does not halt airstrikes.

Osama Edward, of the Assyrian Human Rights Network, told CNN that the extremists are believed to have 150 hostages, including women, children and the elderly.

ISIS militants abducted at least 70 Assyrian Christians after overrunning a string of villages in northeastern Syria. The extremist fighters swept through the villages along the banks of Khabur River near the town of Tal Tamr in Hassakeh province around dawn on Monday. The area is predominantly inhabited by Assyrians, an indigenous Christian people who trace their roots back to the ancient Mesopotamians.

Assyrian Human Rights NetworkAssyrian Christians flee into the night after ISIS overran a string of villages in northeastern Syria.

In the assault, the militants took between 70 and 100 Assyrians captive, said Nuri Kino, the head of the activist group A Demand For Action, which focuses on religious minorities in the Middle East. He said some 3,000 people managed to flee the onslaught and have sought refuge in the cities of Hassakeh and Qamishli.

But Edward said ISIS is holding many more Assyrian Christians hostage than previously thought and he feared they face the same fate as the more than 20 members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority slaughtered by ISIS in Libya last month.

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“Maybe they are facing the same destiny. That’s why we call on all over the world, like the U.S, Europe, coalition forces — protect Assyrians, save Assyrians in Syria,” he told CNN.

“They are facing death, people are unarmed, they are peaceful. And they need help, they are just left alone — no one’s protecting them.”

ISISIn this file image made from a video released Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015 by militants in Libya claiming loyalty to the Islamic State group purportedly shows Egyptian Coptic Christians in orange jumpsuits being led along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant.

The video message will be directed to President Barack Obama and other members of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.

Edward said the latest information from the ground indicated the hostages had been moved to an ISIS-controlled location.

The activist organization Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently also said on Twitter that ISIS has moved a number of Assyrian captives to Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold.

Assyrian Human Rights NetworkSome 600 families have taken refuge in St. Mary's Cathedral in al-Hasakah, Syria.

Edward said some 35 Assyrian villages and towns had now been taken over by ISIS, forcing thousands of families to flee.

Some 600 families have taken refuge in St. Mary’s Cathedral in al-Hasakah, Syria, he said Tuesday.

The Assyrians lack food, water, blankets and other necessities after years of being in the middle of a civil war.

CONNEAUT, Ohio — Two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers have freed both an American freighter stuck for five days on southern Lake Erie and the U.S. ice-breaker trying to reach it through ice up to three metres thick.

The SS Arthur M. Anderson — the last ship in radio contact with the SS Edmund Fitzgerald before it sank in 1975 — had been trapped in the ice near Conneaut Harbor, about 75 kilometres northeast of Cleveland, since Tuesday.

The ship had fallen victim to plunging temperatures in February that left more than 90 per cent of Lake Erie covered in ice.

The two Canadian Coast Guard ships, the Griffon and the Samuel Risley, created a track through the ice north of the Anderson in order to free it Saturday.

Canadian Coast GuardA crew member aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Griffon keeps a close watch on the Arthur M. Anderson as the icebreaker assists the freighter out of heavy ice conditions on southern Lake Erie on Saturday, February 21, 2015 in this handout photo.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the cutter Bristol Bay, a 140-foot ice-breaking tug, had been battling eight to ten feet of ice trying to reach the Anderson from its base in Detroit.

“After working tirelessly for several days and making slow progress, the crew of the Bristol Bay was running low on food for its crew, so a [U.S.] coast guard air crew from Air Station Detroit delivered 100 pounds of food via their rescue basket Thursday night,” it said in a release.

The U.S. Coast Guard summoned the 234-foot Griffon for help from its station in Prescott, Ont.

The Griffon joined with the Bristol Bay and they cleared a path into Cleveland, where the Bristol Bay was refuelled and resupplied with food.

A U.S. Coast Guard report said the Anderson was the last ship in radio contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald before it sank in a Lake Superior storm on Nov. 10, 1975, killing all 29 onboard. The Anderson was also the first rescue ship on the scene in a vain search for Fitzgerald survivors.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian Coast Guard, Carol Launderville, said that the Griffon has moved on to help escort an oil tanker in Nanticoke, Ont. and the Samuel Risley is now escorting the Anderson to the Detroit area, which could take a day or more depending on the ice conditions.

Launderville said none of the ships were in danger.

“The U.S. and Canada have a strong ice-breaking partnership,” said Rear Adm. Fred Midgette, commander Coast Guard 9th District. “Both countries co-ordinate closely to respond to these extreme ice conditions across the Great Lakes.”

Things will get even busier in mid-March, when the shipping season begins for the lakes’ regular traffic of vessels carrying iron ore, coal, grain and other bulk cargo.

Great Lakes Environmental Research LaboratorySatellite imagery of Lake Erie Monday shows it almost completely covered in ice after a bitter February.

“We’re probably going to be looking at situations like we had last year, where we had to put together convoys — lots of vessels together to make it through,” U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lorne Thomas said.

Nearly 81 per cent of the Great Lakes are covered with ice, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory reported Friday.

That was down slightly from more than 85 per cent the previous day — a glitch that probably happened because strong winds broke apart some ice and created open spots detected by satellites, said George Leshkevich, a physical scientist with the lab in Ann Arbor.

But with forecasts calling for frigid weather at least through the end of the month, the ice cover may keep expanding, he said. It’s grown rapidly as temperatures have plunged this month, nearly doubling over the past couple of weeks.

Patrick Record / The Ann Arbor NewAn ice fisherman makes his way back to his car after fishing on Independence Lake in Whitmore Lake, Mich., on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015.

Records show the lakes’ most widespread freeze was 94.7 per cent in 1979. The ice cover topped out at 92.2 per cent last March.

Significant portions of the lakes typically froze over decades ago, Leshkevich said, but the frequency of severe winters has declined since the late 1990s.

“Two almost record-setting years back to back would be very unusual,” he said.

One likely explanation for the rapid buildup this month is that 2014’s freeze lasted so long — Lake Superior wasn’t completely ice-free until June — and summer was so mild that the lakes didn’t absorb much heat, he said. “So we started this season with below-water temperatures to begin with.”

The ice blanket reaches across more than 90 per cent of Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie, while Lakes Michigan and Ontario are more than halfway covered.

OTTAWA – A case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has been confirmed in a beef cow at an unspecified location in Alberta, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday.

The case is the first in Canada since 2011.

No part of the cow had reached the human food or animal feed systems, the agency said in a statement.

“The CFIA is seeking to confirm the age of the animal, its history and how it became infected. The investigation will focus in on the feed supplied to this animal during the first year of its life,” the agency said.

Scientists believe that the spread of this disease in cattle in Great Britain was caused by feeding protein products made from infected cattle or sheep, the agency said.

Investigators are seeking other animals that might have become infected. “Equivalent risk animals will be ordered destroyed and tested for BSE,” it said.

Exports of Canadian beef were badly hit in 2003 after the first case of BSE was found on a farm. Canada tightened its controls and many nations have since resumed the beef trade with Canada, despite the discovery of more cases since then. The CFIA said the latest case should not harm Canadian exports of beef.

BSE – a progressive, fatal neurological disease – is believed to be spread when cattle eat protein rendered from the brains and spines of infected cattle or sheep. Canada banned that practice in 1997.

The CFIA tightened feed rules in 2007 and said at the time the moves should help eliminate the disease nationally within a decade, although the agency said it still expected to discover the occasional new case.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/mad-cow-disease-found-in-alberta-investigators-assure-it-was-caught-before-cow-was-processed-for-sale/feed/0stdEast of CalgaryMad cow disease found in Alberta: Investigators assure it was caught before cow was processed and eatenhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/mad-cow-disease-found-in-alberta-investigators-assure-it-was-caught-before-cow-was-processed-and-eaten
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/mad-cow-disease-found-in-alberta-investigators-assure-it-was-caught-before-cow-was-processed-and-eaten#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 13:13:26 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=698982

OTTAWA – A case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has been confirmed in a beef cow at an unspecified location in Alberta, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday.

The case is the first in Canada since 2011.

No part of the cow had reached the human food or animal feed systems, the agency said in a statement.

“The CFIA is seeking to confirm the age of the animal, its history and how it became infected. The investigation will focus in on the feed supplied to this animal during the first year of its life,” the agency said.

Investigators are seeking other animals that might have become infected. “Equivalent risk animals will be ordered destroyed and tested for BSE,” it said.

Exports of Canadian beef were badly hit in 2003 after the first case of BSE was found on a farm. Canada tightened its controls and many nations have since resumed the beef trade with Canada, despite the discovery of more cases since then. The CFIA said the latest case should not harm Canadian exports of beef.

BSE – a progressive, fatal neurological disease – is believed to be spread when cattle eat protein rendered from the brains and spines of infected cattle or sheep. Canada banned that practice in 1997.

The CFIA tightened feed rules in 2007 and said at the time the moves should help eliminate the disease nationally within a decade, although the agency said it still expected to discover the occasional new case.

The Dallas Stars say captain Jamie Benn has “reached out” to apologize to Henrik and Daniel Sedin after making offensive comments about the twins on a radio program.

Benn and teammate Tyler Seguin made disparaging remarks about the Vancouver Canucks’ stars rooming together on the road while on a Dallas sports talk show on Monday.

“The Dallas Stars have the utmost respect for the contributions that the [Sedins] have made to both the game and to their community over the course of their great careers,” Stars president Jim Lites said in a brief statement Wednesday.

The oldest, lamest, most worn-out dig on them is the “sisters” slur. It’s a little heartbreaking I still have to write about this in 2015. If the Sedins still get it, what about the kids in minor hockey? Peewee soccer? High school band?

Obviously, when it comes to the Sedins, it continues to follow them.

They are not the only stars who have this type of attack directed at them. Crosby has been called Cindy. Even Pronger got it, called Chrissy. As though being female is inherently wrong or inferior.

Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, of the Dallas Stars, tapped into what comes off as a similar form of bullying at the end of a long interview on something called the Bob and Dan show.

From what I can tell, the interview was taken off the web site after some of Canuck twitter heard it and demanded apologies from Benn and Seguin. Not sure on that. But it was here.

In the late stages of the interview, the topic turned to rooming on the road. Benn and his brother play on the same team but he explains they get separate rooms.

A host says he thinks the Sedins stay together still, and Benn follows that line up stating:

“Who knows what else they do together?”

Not a great moment. Jokes follow, as the hosts claim the way the Sedins cut their hair and present themselves are examples of what brothers should never do.

And Seguin, in loose Seguin fashion, concludes it with this:

“They’re odd as s–––.”

Sure if odd is mature, responsible, accountable, upstanding community members who love their team and city equally, while going through life respecting every person they encounter.

Yes, if that’s your definition odd, then they are as odd as s–––.

With files from The Canadian Press

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck,FileVancouver Canucks' Daniel Sedin, right, celebrating with his twin brother Henrik Sedin, both of Sweden, after scoring the winning goal against the Montreal Canadiens.

The prosecution’s strategy in undercutting Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s claim he did not know he was having sex with prostitutes became clearer Wednesday as a second woman testified he subjected her to a sex act against her will.

Sandrine Vandenschrik told judges Wednesday that Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, didn’t give her a chance to refuse his actions.

Vandenschrik, also known as Jade, broke down in tears as a judge asked her to detail what happened.

“When I turned my back to Dominique Strauss-Kahn I was subjected to a penetration that I hadn’t been asked if I accepted,” she said. “To which I would have said no, because I didn’t want that.”

The 65-year-old Strauss-Kahn, in testimony immediately after Jade’s, didn’t dispute the nature of the sex they had, but said he had no way of thinking that it wasn’t consensual. There was no exchange of money, he said, and the atmosphere was friendly afterward.

“I had no way of knowing she didn’t want it … It wasn’t my intention, I’m sorry it happened like that.”

He was questioned by the judge who made reference to another woman, Mounia Rabou, who the previous day alleged that she was in tears and gesturing that she didn’t want to have anal sex with Strauss-Kahn, but that when he realized her distress he smiled and went ahead anyway “with force”.

Strauss-Kahn told the judge that he had regrettably discovered during this case that he had “a sexuality that was more rough than the average man”.

The former head of the International Monetary Fund is testifying for a second day as he seeks to repair a reputation that has been battered by sex scandals on two continents. Charges of sexual assault in a New York hotel room that were eventually dropped and a post-IMF business venture that ended in bankruptcy have tarnished the image of the Frenchman, who was once a leading contender for the presidency of France.

The prosecution is attempting to build a weight of evidence that Strauss-Kahn knew that some of the women at the parties between 2008 and 2011 were prostitutes. Jade’s evidence is a key part of their case, which is being heard in front of a panel of four judges, two male and two female.

The silver-haired economist, who has spoken confidently and been unflappable when questioned, lost his patience when a lawyer for the prostitutes interrogated him on the act.

“I am starting to get fed up,” he said, adding people were free to disagree with his proclivities, but that he was not on trial for “deviant sexual practices.”

Thierry Chesnot / Getty ImagesThe exterior of the Hotel Carlton in Lille, France. where some of the sexual encounters took place.

For a second day, the court in the northern city of Lille picked apart sex parties attended by Strauss-Kahn in Paris, Brussels and Washington in a bid to uncover whether he arranged for prostitutes to attend.

While prostitution in itself is legal, encouraging and organizing its practice is considered to be procuring and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Strauss-Kahn denies knowing that the women with whom he engaged in “free and friendly” sex parties were prostitutes, saying paying for sex would be too great a risk for a man at the head of the IMF.

Much of proceedings Wednesday were taken up with accounts of a trip by Jade and friends of Strauss-Kahn to visit him in Washington.

Strauss-Kahn had taken Jade on a visit to his IMF office and judge Bernard Lemaire showed a photo there of the two. However Strauss-Kahn said if he had known she was a prostitute it was ‘inconceivable’ that he would have taken the risk of bringing her to his place of work.

Lemaire asked Jade why she had agreed to the trip after Strauss-Kahn had sodomized her.

“For 2,000 euros, I am not going to say no. I love travelling. I had never seen Washington,” she said, explaining she needed the money to pay an 1,800-euro legal bill.

Jade said Strauss-Kahn’s entourage had asked her to be discreet and pretend she was a secretary on the trip to Washington.

Whether on two wheels or on four, it is never Lance Armstrong’s fault. On the bike, he claims to be simply the doped-up cog in a machine of industrial-scale mendacity.

Behind the wheel of the car, he prefers to adopt the Chris Huhne approach: namely, to commit a brazen road-traffic offence, then let his significant other take the rap for him. Anna Hansen, Armstrong’s girlfriend, argues that she accepted the blame for him hitting two parked cars in Aspen, Colorado, last December because she did not want the accident “to become a national story”. Well, that worked a treat.

The subsequent cover-up, uncovered this week in police files, has gone global instead. It is not simply that Armstrong was stupid enough to transfer responsibility to Miss Hansen and assume he would get away with it, but that his cowardice was so grimly redolent of past sins. Yet again, he chooses to duck the bullet, while allowing those closest to him to be publicly traduced. So much, then, for all the recent protestations that he is a reformed man. Even as a sad irrelevance, exiled not merely from cycling but from any form of competitive endeavour, he remains perhaps the most compellingly nefarious character in sport.

AP Photo/David ZalubowskiIn this Aug. 25, 2012, file photo, Lance Armstrong, left, prepares to take part in the Power of Four mountain bicycle race, as his girlfriend Anna Hansen looks on, in Snowmass Village, Colo.

‘Le Boss’, Armstrong was christened in the Tour de France peloton for his remorseless, controlling style. So, meet the new boss, same as the old boss, as The Who’s timeless lyric would have it. That song, of course, was Won’t Get Fooled Again, although Armstrong seems by his repeated insults to public intelligence to think very differently. Whether out of knowing no better or a belief that he is somehow exceptional, the Texan is a pathological liar, whose default response to the first sign of crisis is to perpetrate a grand deception. Forever scheming, forever conniving, he is a figure for whom there can be no absolution.

Take the full transcript of his interview in Austin to the BBC. Under detailed questioning, Armstrong gives several answers that make no sense whatsoever. On the one hand, he maintains that “life is thinning out”, that things are simpler now that he can focus on his children and “protect only seven people – who all have the last name Armstrong”. Except he is demonstrably bored with idle domesticity and playing the pariah. Already in 2015, he is on a different PR tack, actively courting attention, even so far as giving a 15-page interview to specialist cycling magazine Rouleur. He wants the world to hear what he has to say again. But the world is not listening. Why should it, when Armstrong’s supposed humility is couched in terms of monumental arrogance? For instance, he tells the BBC that he was “way out of the line” and “deserved some punishment”, and then almost in the same breath compares the vacating of his seven Tour titles to a “world war”. The three glaring gaps in the roster of official winners is portrayed thus: World War One, World War Two, World War Lance. Despite being excised from history, he is still so beguiled by his own perceived accomplishments that he keeps those seven poisoned yellow jerseys framed on his living-room wall.

AP Photo/Aspen Police DepartmentThis Dec. 28, 2014 photo provided by the Aspen Police Department shows one of the two vehicles involved in a hit-and-run in Aspen, Colo.

He feigns contrition, then turns all self-pitying when he laments that he can no longer take part in any charity runs. Seriously, he actually believes that the Boston Marathon would take him? For any race with a shred of credibility, the idea of Armstrong turning up would be like kryptonite in a vest. He insists that his regrets over his Tour return in 2009 are not because he got caught, before immediately admitting his comeback offered a “bridge to the past” – in other words, a connection that allowed him to get caught. He seeks desperately to come across as the regular guy making his peace with Filippo Simeoni, Christophe Bassons, Emma O’Reilly, Betsy Andreu and the countless others he betrayed, and yet keeps referring to himself in the third person. “Lance Armstrong is not the biggest fraud in the history of world sport,” he avows.

Sorry, Lance, but you would be a pretty sure bet to make the top five. He maintains, though, that not only can he rehabilitate his image, but that he might ultimately further his political ambitions, perhaps one day reaching the Senate. Bassons has suggested this has been Armstrong’s aim ever since he arranged that dewy-eyed confessional with Oprah. This is a man caught in the grip of a vast delusion, convinced that he can reconnect with people for whom he is not so much toxic as radioactive. It is particularly telling that what upsets him most is not his utter ruination, financial or otherwise, or the expunging of everything he ever worked for, but the severing of his ties to cancer foundation Livestrong. For years, the little yellow wristband was his light sabre, his personal force field. Now, even that has gone, following the charity’s request for him to step away.

Just when it looks as though Armstrong cannot fall any further, he creates more battles to fight: whether it be the lawsuit from SCA Promotions, chasing the repayment of bonuses paid for his Tour wins, or the court date in Colorado on March 17 for apparently agreeing for his partner to lie for his bad driving. If Armstrong truly is trying to win back friends, he is going a peculiar way about it. And as for any boyfriend of the year awards, forget it.

MELBOURNE — Novak Djokovic has denied feigning injury during an intense Australian Open final on Sunday and said that he would be happy to sit down with Andy Murray, whom he beat in four sets, to discuss the flashpoints of a controversial match.

You only had to look at the photographs from Rod Laver Arena to see how angry Murray was at the close of his 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 defeat. He sat on his chair and smashed a couple of rackets, and then waited out Djokovic’s acceptance speech in such seething rage that he could not even manage a smile when congratulated on his recent engagement.

The issue was the way Djokovic appeared to be playing rope-a-dope by exaggerating his physical exhaustion early in the third set. “I got a bit distracted when he, like, fell on the ground after a couple of shots,” Murray said in the post-match interview. “If it was cramp, that’s a tough thing to recover from and play as well as he did at the end.”

However, even if Djokovic was playing dead – and no one can prove that he was – there is nothing in tennis’s rules about body language. And Murray admitted: “I’ve been through situations like that before, where I haven’t let it affect me. That was what was disappointing.”

MAL FAIRCLOUGH/AFP/Getty ImagesBritain's Andy Murray said after the match that he was disappointed he got distracted during the third set.

Asked yesterday (Monday) if he expected there to be any bad blood, Djokovic replied: “From my perspective, no. How he feels about it, it’s obviously still very fresh to talk about that. It’s normal that some time has to pass.

“If there is a chance, if he’s willing to talk, I’ll talk, no problem. I have nothing to hide. I’m not the sort of guy who is pretending, who is trying to do something behind anyone’s back or is saying bad things about anybody, especially about him, someone I have known for a long time. I have respect for him.”

The past two weeks could be seen as a case of two steps forward, one step back for Murray. The excellent impression he had built up with his assertive, predatory tennis was undermined by the sense of regression on the second Sunday, as he suffered his most obvious psychological meltdown since before Ivan Lendl arrived on the scene as his coach in 2012.

AP Photo/Rob GriffithBeating Djokovic on Rod Laver Arena is the second-hardest feat in the sport, after facing Rafael Nadal on the clay of Paris.

In his defence, though, it should be said that this was a ferociously challenging situation. Beating Djokovic on Rod Laver Arena is the second-hardest feat in the sport, after facing Rafael Nadal on the clay of Paris. So when the world No.1 started to look as if he was cramping, Murray probably wanted to believe it so much that he forgot to be wary. The old saw applied: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

As he left Melbourne yesterday, though, Murray sounded increasingly upbeat about his efforts. Asked if he would be motivated by the manner of his defeat, he replied: “I made it clear I was distracted in the third set, that was all. I lost in a good way. I gave everything, my best effort. You guys obviously don’t see that; it’s only me and my team and the people I train with who see that. But I did everything I could to win this event; I have to be proud of myself for that, and I don’t need things to motivate me.”

Murray’s record in grand slam finals now stands at two wins in eight attempts, but there are no soft touches: he has drawn Djokovic and Roger Federer four times each, and beaten each once.

“If he won a couple more matches maybe he would have five grand slams now and it would be a different story,” Djokovic said yesterday. “On the other hand I maybe could have won a few more. But this is the generation we are in, there are four players that are incredibly good and very few points decide the winner.”

As for the status of his former friendship with Murray, which has inevitably cooled while the two have spent so much time plotting how to beat each other, Djokovic suggested that the arrival of a mini Murray might help to bring them back together again. After all, Djokovic’s own status as a new father has defused the tension that used to exist between himself and Federer.

“We have been rivals for the last couple of years, so we don’t get to be together as we would maybe like to on and off the court,” Djokovic said. “But now when he gets married and maybe has a kid we will spend more time. We’ll have an excuse. Things will hopefully be different in the future. I do look at him, Rafa and Roger as my friends because I see them so much more than my parents and sometimes more than my wife.

“At this point of our careers maybe that intimate and close relationship is not possible yet. But we’re all humans at the end of the day and I think we should consider that human side as a priority before sport.”

The Daily Telegraph

MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty ImagesNewly crowned Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic kisses the Australian Open tennis trophy along the Yarra river in downtown Melbourne on February 2, 2015.

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After several seconds of darkness, the screen read: “What would you do if your TV went out?” then explained how the new Chevy Colorado has built-in 4G LTE Wi-Fi that would allow owners to stream the game from inside the truck. The ad ended with the AC/DC song “Back in Black.”

Many viewers took to social media to express how they’d been duped, some with praise and others with relief. The hashtag #ChevyColorado was trending with tweets such as, “Dear #ChevyColorado I almost yelled at my kids ‘What did you guys do this time?!’. Lol. #SuperBowlXLIX.”

of all the commercials so far the only truly great one is the Chevy Colorado ad where where the TV picture goes blank before the SB…Great!